June 27, 2026 Story by: Publisher
A federal district court on Wednesday, on June 24, dismissed a Voting Rights Act challenge against DeSoto County’s local electoral map, marking one of the first major applications of a recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent to local county government.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson ruled that the county’s 2022 redistricting plan does not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In doing so, the court awarded judgment to the defendants, finding that the plaintiffs failed to meet the necessary threshold requirements to establish illegal vote dilution.
“Plaintiffs did not present enough evidence to support a strong inference that the County intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race,” Davidson wrote in his ruling.
The lawsuit, Harris v. DeSoto County, was filed in September 2024 by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU of Mississippi, and the Harvard Election Law Clinic.
The groups represented individual Black voters, the DeSoto County NAACP, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The plaintiffs argued that the 2022 map intentionally split or packed Black population centers across local districts, effectively preventing minority voters from electing candidates of their choice to 25 specific county offices. These offices include positions on the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Education, the Election Commission, and local judicial seats.
DeSoto County, located in northwest Mississippi directly south of Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the fastest-growing regions in the state. According to demographic data presented during the trial, the county’s Black population grew from 12% in 2000 to more than 36% by 2026.
Despite this demographic shift, no Black candidate has been elected to any of the 25 districted county offices covered by the disputed map in more than 20 years.
Attorneys representing DeSoto County argued that the lack of Black elected officials in these specific seats was a reflection of partisan political alignment rather than racial discrimination, describing the area as a consistently conservative and Republican jurisdiction.
The Influence of Louisiana v. Callais
The federal court’s decision relied heavily on Louisiana v. Callais, a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling handed down on April 29, 2026.
In Callais, the Supreme Court established a more rigorous standard for plaintiffs attempting to prove vote dilution under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Applying that new framework, the district court concluded that the plaintiffs in the DeSoto County case failed to satisfy all three preconditions of the Gingles test, the long-standing legal framework used to determine whether a minority group’s voting power has been unlawfully diluted.
Specifically, the court treated “core retention”, the practice of maintaining the primary boundaries of historical districts, as a valid justification for the current map configuration.
Federal judge rules Mississippi’s DeSoto County redistricting efforts violate ‘Voting Rights Act’ standards
The Mississippi Legislature’s newly redrawn Mississippi Senate District map does not follow court orders to strengthen voting power for Black Mississippians in DeSoto County, a unanimous three-judge panel ruled in mid April 2025.
The Legislature has seven days to propose a new Senate district map, the judges said. The panel included U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi’s Northern Division judges Sul Ozerden and Daniel Jordan, along with U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick. Republican President George W. Bush appointed all three judges.
“We have considered DeSoto County’s arguments but decline to address them because they would not alter this result. Nonetheless, when making a final decision about proper districts for this area, we may need to decide the relevance of traditional redistricting principles when imposing a remedy for a Section 2 violation,” the judges said in the April 15 decision.
The Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP filed a lawsuit in 2022 against the Mississippi Board of Election Commissioners, Gov. Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, claiming that the legislative voting maps “illegally dilute the voting strength of Black Mississippians.”
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi’s Northern Division agreed with the NAACP in a 2024 decision and ordered the Legislature to redraw its districting maps to create more Black-majority districts to give Black voters equal participation in the political process.
Joint Resolution 202 revises the composition of Mississippi Senate districts 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 34, 41, 42, 44 and 45 to create at least two more Black-majority Senate districts to follow the court’s orders.(Photo courtesy of: Heather Harrison)
The judges ruled that the Legislature needs to create more Black-majority Senate districts around DeSoto County in North Mississippi; around the city of Hattiesburg in South Mississippi; and more Black-majority House districts in Chickasaw and Monroe counties.
Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Mississippi, worked on the Senate’s redistricting plan. Before the legislative session ended earlier in April, this reporter asked him on March 12 what the Legislature would do if the judges rejected lawmakers’ redistricting plans.
“Then they can draw up a plan for us,” Kirby told the Mississippi Free Press on March 12.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said it agreed with the judges’ decision in a Wednesday press release and hopes a new map will give Black voters equal participation in the political process.
“Our goal in this case is to achieve fair representation for Black people in Mississippi. Today’s ruling striking down the State’s legislative map for DeSoto County takes an important step toward that goal. The judges gave the State another chance to get its map right. We will carefully review the State’s new map to ensure that it enables Black voters to participate fully in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice,” Jennifer Nwachukwu, senior counsel from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Voting Rights Project, said in an April 16 press release.
During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers approved Joint Resolution 1, altering the district lines of Mississippi House districts 16, 22, 36, 39 and 41 to create at least one more Black-majority House district in compliance with the federal court’s orders. Lawmakers also approved Joint Resolution 202, revising the composition of Mississippi Senate districts 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 34, 41, 42, 44 and 45 to create at least two more Black-majority Senate districts. Districts 1, 11 and 19 are in DeSoto County.
Kirby sponsored J.R. 202. The Legislature’s attorneys at Butler Snow law firm send the Senate’s maps to “mapping experts,” but they cannot tell the Legislature who the professionals are, he told the Mississippi Free Press on March 12.
The Senate voted to approve its redistricting plan, J.R. 202, by a 33-16 vote on Feb. 26, and the House passed it by a 67-51 vote on March 5. The House passed its redistricting proposal, J.R. 1, by a 81-33 vote on Feb. 6, and the Senate approved it with a 30-12 vote on March 5.
The three-judge panel approved the Mississippi House’s redrawn district map and will allow it to become law. The judges’ decision said the redrawn House districts 16 and 22 align with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and noted the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, a plaintiff in the case, agrees with the redrawn House map for the Hattiesburg area.
“The Court rightly rejected the proposed DeSoto County senate districts. The Mississippi Legislature’s attempt to skirt the law would have actually diminished Black voting power in the northwest corner of the state,” Jarvis Dortch, the executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Source: Mississippi Free Press
